Chili's Grill & Bar, which currently offers guests the ability to swipe and pay on demand through Ziosk tablets—located on every restaurant table—is planning to integrate mobile payment functionality on its more than 70,000 tablets nationwide starting spring 2016 with all company-owned restaurants.

Chili's plans to launch the functionality with Apple Pay, which is transforming mobile payments with a secure and private way to pay. Once the rollout begins, Chili's will be the first casual dining restaurant brand to offer guests the ability of contactless payment on demand at the table.

"More than seven out of 10 people choose to pay on the Ziosk tablet when dining in a Chili's restaurant," says Krista Gibson, chief marketing officer for Chili's Grill & Bar. "Mobile payment delivers the speed, convenience and security that are clearly important to today's guest, and integrating this technology where it's never been available before will be a big benefit to new school consumers, especially Millennials."

Once the functionality is available at a participating Chili's restaurant in 2016, guests can use Apple Pay by holding their iPhone near the tablet's contactless reader while keeping a finger on Touch ID, or, when using Apple Watch, double-clicking the side button and holding the face up to the reader. A subtle vibration and beep will let the guest know the payment is accepted and verified.

Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay. When adding a credit or debit card to Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted, and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.

The tabletop tablets at Chili's will also accept Android Pay.